The present invention relates generally to desks and desking systems.
A conventional desk for supporting a computer includes a main desktop, various drawers and cupboards, and possibly one or more drawers and/or stands for supporting a computer keyboard and/or viewing screen (VDU). Some computer desks also include a drawer, rack or stand for the central processing unit (CPU) chassis, to position the CPU toward the rear of the desk or beside a desk leg, rather than on the desktop or the floor beside or beneath the desk. Typically, a VDU, a mouse, and often the keyboard are positioned on top of the main desktop, and often one or more peripheral devices are also placed on top of the desktop.
In an environment including several computer desks, for example, in an office of networked computers, each desk is typically separate from the others and the power and electronics cabling is supplied to each desk individually from power and cable connection points on the floor or walls. In an education institution, for example, classrooms are set up with one or more rows of desks, each desk carrying one or more respective computers, and desks are often placed side-by-side, or otherwise adjacent one another.
Convention computer desks (or environments including several computer desks, e.g., offices, classrooms) require: (i) power cabling to a computer processor and various computer peripheral devices (e.g., VDU, keyboard, mouse, printer, scanner); (ii) cabling between the processor and peripheral devices, and between various peripheral devices; (iii) a telephone connection for Internet access; and (iv) in some cases, network cabling connecting two or more computers to each other and to other devices. Systems for handling these cables include tying them together with plastic cable ties, string, or plastic “Cable Zip” tubes, taping the cabling to the floor, placing the cabling under rubber cable protectors that form ridges on top of the floor, or placing the cabling in trunking under the floor.
Conventional computer desks are not made to connect to one another. In environments including several computer desks, they are generally simply placed side by side, and can be moved about, or they are tied together using a crude system such as cable ties, which typically still allow some movement. Existing desking systems are not designed to provide a flexible arrangement of desk placement when one or more desks are connected together in some fashion.